Gender Equity: An Ongoing Pursuit

Nicole Bills, MAC Champion (1999) and first CMU gymnast to individually qualify for the NCAA Championships (1999)

Although five decades have passed since it was enacted, Title IX and gender equity continue to be important priorities for Central Michigan University and those who work and learn here. 

In 2002, CMU formed the Title IX: Gender Equity Committee and tasked the group with holding the university accountable for complying with Title IX. CMU manages compliance on the “proportional representation” prong of Title IX compliance. In other words, the proportion of women to men at CMU as a whole is reflected in the proportion of women athletes to male athletes. In 2022, CMU had a nearly 60/40 split of women to men in the general student body. For the athletics programs, that means that for every two male athletes on Central's teams, three female athletes should have roster spots. 

Title IX compliance has been a controversial, and sometimes unsavory, topic in college athletics. In a 2016 Reveal report, reporters found that the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) padded their numbers: UCLA counted the 19 men who served as members of the women’s basketball practice squad in the previous season as “female athletes.” More than that, UCLA reported all of the names of the women who showed up for the crew team’s informational night (127 of them) as athletes. The true number of women rowers on the roster who competed was only a third of that reported number, at 45 women. CMU, in tandem with the Title IX: Gender Equity Committee and the NCAA, makes sure that Central's numbers are accurate and representative of the university. 

CMU Women's Basketball, 2017

That doesn't mean that CMU is always in the clear when it comes to equity in sports, or that there hasn't been room to improve. In 2005, the NCAA informed CMU that the university would need to add another women's sport by 2010 or risk being out of compliance with Title IX. With the proportions of women and men at CMU shifting all the time, making changes to the number of women's and men's sports is inevitable. In fact, women have comprised a majority of CMU's student body since around 1980, meaning the number of women athletes and sports must increase proportionally.

Just a year later, in 2006, both the Title IX: Gender Equity Committee and the NCAA instructed CMU to renovate its gymnastics practice facility for both safety and equity reasons. Title IX is not just a numbers game—it also means ensuring safe and nondiscriminatory access to resources, such as a space to practice. In particular, sports like women's gymnastics—in which athletes experience what then-head coach Jerry Reighard described as "close calls every day"—require suitable facilities to prevent injury.

As the number of women enrolled at CMU continued to increase in comparison to men, in 2012, the Title IX: Gender Equity Committee recommended that CMU add women's golf and lacrosse teams. In response, CMU approved the decision and began to establish both teams right away, with the goal of having them play by 2013. In the ten years since the recommendation, both women's golf and lacrosse have found success, playing against elite programs across the country.

CMU's Lacrosse team, 2016

The Title IX: Gender Equity Committee, coaches, administrators, and athletes continue to ensure that all CMU student-athletes have equitable access to sports on campus. In 2016, for instance, the Academic Senate considered making more changes to the number of men's and women's sports, a process that would mean either cutting some men's sports or adding women's sports. And when CMU searched for a new Associate Vice President/Director of Athletics in 2020, gender equity in Central's athletics programs was front and center—each candidate met with the Title IX: Gender Equity Committee as part of the interview process.

To learn more about and support women's athletics at CMU, visit the Central Michigan University athletics page.